The master who brought Gothic to England
A twelfth-century French master builder, the key figure who brought mature Gothic architecture to England. After the choir of Canterbury Cathedral was destroyed in a fire, he was charged with rebuilding it, bringing France’s new pointed arch and ribbed vault to England and opening the age of English Gothic. Unhappily, he fell badly injured from the high scaffolding during construction and could no longer continue, directing remotely before returning to France. His story is a miniature of medieval building: without modern machinery, the masters climbed in person on scaffolds tens of metres high, stacking stone toward the sky at the risk of their lives.
Rebuilding Canterbury Cathedral, William of Sens, inspecting the high vaults, fell from a scaffold some dozen metres up, gravely injured, and could never again come to the site. Bedridden, he directed the work for a time through a monk’s relay, and finally had to hand it over and return, dispirited, to France. Behind the miracles of medieval architecture were countless builders like him, who wrestled stone and height with their own flesh and blood.
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